Chasing Home (Cherry Peak Book 3)

by Hannah Cowan

“Why the fuck is there a white horse in my stable?” I come up behind him with my hands in my pockets. The stable is quiet, the horses tucked in and the other ranch hands done for the day. “They were running a buy two, get one half off sale.”

“The bill says otherwise.” “I’ll take care of Frost, Wade. You’ve got my word.” “I thought you were happy with Joker. You’ve had ’er for years.” “I am. Frost isn’t for me.” His brows dip, realization hitting him quickly. “What is it with you boys and your lavish gift buyin’? My wife’s gettin’ expectations.”

“I’m completely obsessed with her. All I want is to keep her here with me. I feel it, you know? The knowing that you told us about as kids, Mama.”

“Oh, my boy,” she whispers, sniffling in my ear. Mama’s jasmine scent hits me before she joins the hug. Her words are spoken so softly I nearly miss them. “Follow that feeling, Johnny. Grab it, and don’t let it go.”

My phone starts vibrating in my hand, and when I read the word “Mom” on the screen, I tense up tight.

With a swallow, I send the call to voicemail. It makes me feel like a fucking child to do it, but when a woman suddenly appears at the edge of my table with slightly narrowed eyes, I drop the thought as if it were nothing. “Aurora, right?” she asks, not waiting for my answer before yanking the chair opposite of me out from beneath the table and sitting. “You look exactly like you do in your Facebook profile photo. That doesn’t happen often.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you with this. It wasn’t my plan to bring this up to everyone and cause problems. I just want answers,” I admit, feeling that weight on my chest again,

When she told me about you, I took that information and ran. It wasn’t much either. Just your name and that you were from Cherry Peak. “I’m not a spontaneous person, Wanda. Change scares me. Actually, it terrifies me. But I came here anyway, thinking you’d be where the internet told me you were. Except I didn’t find you at the small-town hair salon I expected, and I didn’t know what to do next until I met the Steeles. Eliza’s helped me with a couple of my questions, and now so has Johnny by putting me in touch with you. Calling and asking you to come back here was never my plan, and I’m sorry if I’ve ruined whatever it is you’ve been doing. I just want to know my family history. I want to know why . . .”

I widen my eyes at Wanda when she reaches across the table and takes my hands in hers. She doesn’t smile at me, but it isn’t necessary. The slight squeeze she gives me is enough.

Wanda sits back in her chair and meets my stare head-on. “Welcome to the family, Aurora. For your sake, I hope you’re only here for a short while.”

“Wait, so Wanda, what, gave you her permission to seek out Lee?”

“I guess so. Really, I think she was warning me against going to meet him. She gave me his address in Toronto before we left the bakery, but I don’t think she wants me to use it.” “For her gain or yours?” I’ve known Wanda for years, yeah, but Rory’s my girl, and I won’t have anyone trying to sweep the rug out from under her with this. She doesn’t have enough people in her corner yet watching her back, and if Wanda isn’t prepared to take on that task, then I’ll make damn sure she is by the time I’m done with her.

“You’re going to go meet him, and I’m goin’ with you. Tell me when you want to leave, and I’ll make it work.” She scoffs in disbelief, lightly pushing at my chest for me to sit back. “You’re not coming, Johnny. Don’t try and make me feel better by giving me false hope.”

“Once the porch is done, I can focus on other projects. Like the state of the fireplace and lack of screens in the windows. I have a million things I want to do, Rory. But my priority is takin’ care of you.” Her lashes flutter as her eyelids droop. The gap between our lips closes slowly, a millimetre at a time. I can almost taste her next words. “How are you real?” “The same way you are,” I breathe against her mouth before taking it in a soft kiss.

I groan when she sets her hands on my shoulders and urges me back again. This time, I let her guide me, putty beneath her touch. There’s nothing that could prepare me for her next move. I drop one hand behind me to balance myself when she sits herself in my lap, straddling me.

“Come with me somewhere,” I pant, dragging my lips over her cheek to settle against her ear. “I plan to revisit this. Fuck, I could keep you here forever.” She blinks her eyes open, a gorgeous, dazed expression filling her face. “Where are we going?” I tuck a piece of soft blonde hair behind her ear, tracing the shell of it. “Somewhere special.”

“Did you miss work already?” she asks once we step out of my truck outside of the Steele Ranch stable. The moonlight paints streaks through her hair, and I grin at the ethereal look of it. An angel in flesh and blood.

memory where I’m going. Joker’s already waiting in her pen when we stop in front of it. She whinnies and gives her head a shake before moving toward us. “I haven’t properly introduced you two yet, but this is Joker, Rory. She’s my girl,” I say, introducing them before cutting a look at Joker. “Be nice, yeah? Don’t embarrass me.” “You’d embarrass yourself before she would,” Rory teases, standing beside me, her hand finding my back again.

Aurora follows me, curiosity thick in her features. The horse lying on the pile of hay glances up at us and watches with her ears up and alert. “Is that . . .?” Rory gasps. “Her name is Frost. She’s probably the best-behaved mare in here. Poor Joker has been made to look like a rowdy adolescent.” “Why is she here?” The awe in her voice hits me square in the chest, threatening to empty the air from my lungs. “She’s yours.” “Mine? I don’t know a damn thing about horses!”

“I’m going to teach you, darlin’. Every fucking thing that I know.” “Johnny,” she protests, her ass grinding over my groin with every jerky movement of her body. “Let me look at you, dammit.”

There’s an animal out there for everyone. We’re connected to them on a biological level.” “And you think me and this horse are the same? After one interaction?” “It only takes once. You felt it too, told me yourself that you were drawn toward her pen. I took a chance on buyin’ her, and if you don’t want her, then I’ll take her as my own. But I’m certain about this. Call me a dreaming idiot, but I won’t apologize for believing what I do. She’s yours, and you’re hers. Kindred spirits.”

The admission sobers me as my laugh trickles off. My stomach fills with flapping wings. “Do I thank you now?” “I also fuckin’ love how you never know what to say when I tell you shit like that.” I shrug. “Nobody’s complimented me so much before.” His expression tightens, growing serious as he reaches over Frost’s back and strokes a knuckle down my cheek. “Good. You’re mine to compliment. Now, let’s get you up on this girl’s back so we can go.”

“Is it hard?” I blurt out. His eyes snare mine, crinkling at the corners as he smirks. “Around you? Always.” “Johnny!” I ignore the heat flooding my cheeks and try to appear serious. “I meant riding.”

“You’ll give me a complex looking at me like that, darlin’,” he murmurs, the thick lines of his throat working with a swallow. “How am I looking at you?” “Like you want me to work your tight fuckin’ jeans down your thighs and bury my face between them. Just say the word, and I’ll dive deep without giving a shit about coming up for air.”

“Do that, then.” “Not yet.”

“Why?” I croak, a blast of cold ripping through the heat of the haze w...

“You want to be taken in a stable, baby? I’ll take you in a fuckin’ stable so many times you’ll feel the ghost of me buried deep the moment you walk inside of one. But not the first time. If you knew how many times I’ve dreamed of licking your pussy or sliding my cock inside of you, you’d never question how badly I want you. But I’m waitin’, and I’m patient. I’m going to have you splayed out for me and your cum on my tongue tonight, but not yet. Not here. Okay?”

“Do you trust me?” he asks, the words hardly more than a fan of breath across my face. It should take me longer to answer him. To debate on whether or not I do. But there’s no need for debate. “Yes.” The joy that lights up his face right then is every reason as to why I do.

“We’re almost there,” he says, as if sensing how close I am to losing my ever-loving mind. “How are you feeling?” “Do you really want me to answer that?” “Yeah, I think I do.” I scowl. “Too bad.” He laughs in answer,

“Did you ever make wishes on shooting stars when you were a kid?” he asks. I know he’s looking at me without having to check. “I think every kid did that.” “What did you use to wish for?” “Isn’t the golden rule of wishing for something never telling anyone what you actually wished for?” “Are you saying that your wishes never came true?” “Not unless I’ve been walking around with a unicorn horn my entire life, no.” “You wished for a unicorn horn?” “I was a kid.

He makes a disbelieving noise in his throat before leading us out of the ditch and onto a dirt path formed between clusters of overhanging trees. Tiny twinkle lights have been strung in the branches of the trees closest to the road, lighting it up just enough that my eyes don’t have to strain to see in front of us.

“You’re so curious, Rory,” he hums, running his nose along the shell of my ear. My breathing picks up. “I want to tell you everything. About me, my family, my life on the ranch. My future.” “I wouldn’t complain about that,” I whisper. “Ask me something first. Something you should have asked before I tied our horses up.”

His laugh is low in my ear. “Ask me what I wished for when I was a kid, Rory.” “What did you wish for?”

“You, Rory. I wished for you.”

I know she heard me because she sways in my grasp, her small fingers burying themselves in my shirt. Her touch is hot, burning through my clothes. My blood rushes too close to the surface, making everything overly sensitive. I’m one curl of her fingers away from tossing her over my shoulder and locking her inside my house for the next four to six business days. Shit, even that may not be enough time. Four to six months, then.

“I pictured myself as a prince more often than I did a race car driver or MMA fighter like my friends at school. Of course, I never told them that. They’d have strung me up a flagpole by my underwear if I did. I only told my moms about it. They told me that I could be the prince or the princess or the fucking frog if I wanted to. But I was adamant on which role I wanted, and everyone knew it.”

“I wanted to be the prince. The one with the sword and armour that weighed a million pounds. A prince that sought out a princess. Not a damsel in distress or a sleeping beauty. A princess made of steel and iron that could help carry the weight of his armour if it grew too heavy for him. One that loved jokes, especially his, and could laugh with him. A princess that knew how to stand up for herself but allowed him to do so on her behalf when things got too rough. Who could support him yet knock him down a few pegs if he was thinking out of his ass.

“I’ve never considered myself a princess before.” “What about a dream come true instead?” “That’s even less likely.” “Look at me,” I murmur, guiding her chin down before brushing our mouths together. “That’s what you are to me. It’s why I was so drawn to you that first night and why I haven’t been able to stay away from you since. I’m a believer in fate and every cliché, cheesy thing that’s ever existed, and I’m not ashamed of it. It’s who I am on a fundamental level.”

“I love who you are, Johnny. But can you love who I am? Beyond everything you’ve just told me? Can you love my bitterness and social anxiety? My baggage?” I glide my tongue along her bottom lip, taking a single taste. “What would you do if I said I already do?”

“Step up.” I breathe the demand when we stop in front of the single step to the front door. She does as she’s told, blinking up at me in a daze. “Good girl.” Pleasure contorts her features, and I throb in my jeans, tucking that piece of information away for later.